Ok we got a whopping TWO reponses to our first show, so that’s enough for us. Here is Intelli-pop, Episode II:
Category: Music
Riverfest
Anybody interested in working the Triple S Stage with me this year at Riverfest? I did it last year and it was a barrel of monkeys. This year we’ll be driving vans[1] and fetching snacks for the Neville Brothers, Mike Huckabee’s band, Del McCoury, and Pat Green. We’ll also get local luminaries the Boondogs, the Rockin’ Guys, Chris Denny and the amazing Ted Ludwig. Who wants in on hiding twinkies from Aaron Neville?
1.) And golf carts. Did I mention the golf carts? Free food, backstage hangouts, and golf carts are what God intended the Good Life for us to be.
Free Live Music Downloads
I keep forgetting to tell people about the Internet Archive and its enormous store of free live recordings. The list is huge and eccentric (and obscure), but if you take the time to skim down the list I’m sure you’ll find something you like. A lot of it comes from the ‘taper’ community, so there’s a ton of Grateful Dead and jam bands, but like I say there’s something for everyone. So far I see good stuff from: Alex Skolnick, Ari Hest, Aquarium Rescue Unit, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, Ben Lee, Ben Kweller, Buckethead, Charlie Hunter, David Gray, David Mead, Damian Rice, G. Love, Mogwai, Moe, Kaki King, Jump Little Children, Jack Johnson, Howie Day, Henry Kaiser, Guster, Robert Randolph, Spoon, The Argument, The Decemberists, The Samples, and Toad the Wet Sprocket.
Intelli-pop : The Pilot Episode
Back in 2001, Chris and I produced a radio show for KABF. We would record an hour long show at his studio and put it on disc for KABF to play at their convenience. They said they would use it after baseball games, but we can neither confirm nor deny that any episodes ever aired. We even started a website, intelli-pop.com, but since the project never took off, I just pointed it over to rossrice.net.
Thanks to Margot, who recently pointed out to me that the Internet Archive offers free media storage, I uploaded the first show there. Take a listen and let me know what you think. If you enjoy it, I’ll upload the rest of the episodes.
OMG! WTF? PWNED!
Musical Paradox
Something I’ve noticed as I expore the keyboard is that I tend to have a lot more fun getting lost in the music I’m playing. I’ve been playing guitar so long, I have a hard time getting lost. But with the keyboard, once I find a groove I’ll get lost in it for a half hour. It’s a paradoxical struggle that instrumentalists have: on the one hand we want to be in complete control of our instruments, but on the other hand it seems like the best stuff comes from those times when you have no idea what you’re doing. Small wonder, then, that many Buddhists seek the ‘child mind’ and I think that plugs into what I was saying earlier about being 30 – I want to keep as much of a child mind as I can. When the world stops fascinating you every day, then you know you’re an adult.
Back in the Day with YouTube
Here are some more choice nostalgia selections from youtube.com:
Digital Underground – Doowutchyalike
Tribe Called Quest – Left My Wallet in El Segundo
Public Enemy – Night of the Living Baseheads
MC Hammer – Turn This Mother Out
Man, anyone else remember when hip-hop was just fun? Does anybody remember laughter?
The Indie Band Telecaster Phenomenon
Warning: Guitar nerdisms ahead.
I saw a lot of bands last week, and I saw a lot of telecasters. It was uncanny. Nearly every scruffy indie band I saw last week played either a Fender tele or maybe a Gibson ES. There was nary a stratocaster, Les Paul, PRS, or even a weird pawnshop junker to be seen. Fender stratocasters and Gibson Les Pauls are far and away the most popular instruments in rock, or at least mainstream rock. Indie bands apparently go far enough out of their way to avoid playing popular instruments. I guess that makes sense, since they want to avoid the norms of popular music. Generally the telecaster is considered a country music guitar, so I guess there’s an added visual irony for a snarky indie rocker to choose a tele.
The one notable exception was Animal Collective. They had a strat, a PRS AND a pawnshop junker onstage. I think there may have been a tele, too, though. They were musical deviants that sounded like nothing else around, though, so they’re the exception that proves the rule.
Overall, though, I realized that, as much as indie rock claims freedom from the restrictions of the mainstream, they too have their own rules and norms and boundaries. Their uniform is just as strict as mainstream rock: must have thrift store shirts, must have Chuck Taylor All-Stars, must look generally scruffy, holes in clothing preferred…must have telecaster. Indie rock isn’t as self-defined as it might think. It exists only as a reaction to the mainstream, and can only define itself by what it’s not. The mainstream is pretty narrow in its scope, though, so there’s a lot more room for creative expression in indie rock.
The SXSW Rundown
Here are the bands I saw last week that really impressed me. Pictures of some of them here.
The Go! Team: I saw an in-store show at Waterloo Records. They’re a fun bunch. Imagine if the Spice Girls were a genre-hopping indie band. Website | Myspace
The Black Heart Procession: Tara was a big fan. I found the live show kinda lackluster, but some bands just sound better on record than live.
Website | Myspace
Of Montreal: I’ve seen them once before, and they’re the inverse of Black Heart Procession – far more fun live than on record. Interesting that I saw them back to back.
Website | Myspace
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: This band is growing on me. The music is great, but I’m still not warm on the singer’s voice.
Website | Myspace
Roger Manning: I got to meet Roger, the former keyboardist for Jellyfish! On my birthday! I’m 30 now and I don’t care – I’m still 14 and I will be forever! Multiple exclamation points!!
Website | Myspace
The Soft.Lightes – They cancelled but I still love them.
Website | Myspace
Breakup Breakdown: They followed Roger’s set. Very mod/indie rock from Brooklyn with a cute keyboard chick and near-glam look (if a singer with a beard can be glam). Lots of energy. File under Killers/Interpol/Strokes.
Website | Myspace
Animal Collective: They unscrewed the Thermos of my head and poured in black coffee. And I loved it.
Website | Myspace
Robert Skoro: Scruffy solo singer-songwriter with good tunes.
Website
The Handsome Charlies: From Austin by way of Australia. Smart jangly pop. One of my favorites.
Website | Myspace
The Octopus Project: Instrumental weirdness with a hot theremin player. Does it get any better than that?
Website | Myspace
The Dirty Projectors: Experimental weirdness. Atonal bluegrass or King Crimson’s THRAK period done on pawn shop guitars.
The Instruments: Painfully beautiful songs. I don’t think there were any words, but there were vocals. I think. It was a blur.
Website | Myspace
The Lovers : More painful songs with lots of reverb on the vocals from this girl/boy duo. Kinda Jon Brion-ish given the multi-instrumentalist dude backing up the guitar chick. Best lyrics all week.
Elf Power: Fun but kinda blah. It was 2AM by this point, though, so I can’t be trusted.
Website | Myspace
Heineken, Funnel Cakes and NIN
Much rocking out last night at the Nine Inch Nails show at Alltel Arena. Margot came down from Fayetteville with an extra ticket, so hooray for free concerts. I felt perfectly justified spending $9 on a beer and a funnel cake. I’m really surprised the arena allows funnel cakes – it’s nigh impossible not to make a complete mess of yourself and your seat. By the time you’re done, you look like you’ve just left the VIP room of a Miami disco circa 1979, you’re so sticky and covered in white powder. They should have served funnel cakes at Studio 54; it would have made it that much more difficult for cops to raid the place. Why of course I’m not covered in blow, officer…
Also cool: the NIN website features a picture of each town the tour is currently in – check it out.
Incidentally, Pretty Hate Machine is over 16 years old now. Does that qualify it for classic rock status yet?